


tell me now you know

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bar Room Brawl, Bars and Pubs, Cooking, Daisy being a badass, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Falling In Love, First Time, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, IN SPACE!, Love Confessions, Outer Space, Romance, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 10:44:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11229318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Post S4 more Daisy and Coulson in space musings.  Title from Rihanna's "Stay"





	tell me now you know

"If I have to ask again..."

"You might have to ask again," he cuts in blithely.

He tries to finish his drink before this goes the way he's pretty sure it will go.

What is it about him that makes it seem like he's got a target on his back?

Other than the fact that he was able to escape from an alien penal colony, and this guy is trying to i.d. him, and he doesn't exactly look like he belongs here.

Of all the bars he chose...well, he chose this bar on purpose.

Because he was told this is the kind of crowd that might have information.

When the other person takes a swing at him with two left fists, it doesn't take much to raise the shield, but it's likely the impact will ruin everyone else's night when he goes flying across the bar.

But then suddenly, things are looking up. Seems like he won't have the chance to find out.

"Hey!"

The sound is familiar, as the guy goes flying against the wall, and he's pretty sure this is the same face he made when he got that Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle when he was 8.

"Coulson."

She says his name all breathless, like she's been trying to catch up to him all this time, then furrows her eyebrows.

"Are you okay?"

What an idea.

He tries to say something in reply, but nothing comes out.

"C'mon," she tells him, taking him by the upper arm. "Let's get you out of here."

  
****

  
He gets on the back of what looks like a bike, more or less, and leans into her as she takes off.

"How did you find me?" he yells at her over the sounds of the entertainment district nightlife.

"I work there," she tosses over her shoulder. "I'm the bouncer."

He holds her gaze for a moment as she smiles, then she focuses on the road ahead once more.

"Oh." He thinks about she must have the same reason he had for being there.

"It's a good place to get information," she confirms, as they head out of the district towards more barren territory. "And if you make the right kind of friends, they don't talk."

"I guess that last guy wasn't the right kind?"

"We'll have to wait and see," she tells him as they come to a stop in front of run down, dusty mud structure. "If the Kree find out I'm here, it won't be good."

That makes sense, and everything he's learned about the Kree have him wanting to make sure that doesn't happen.

There are a couple of moons looming in the horizon over them, everything with an eerie golden tint to it.

He stops fighting the urge and goes to stand on the edge of the rock outcrop, looking down into the small gully below.

"C'mon, young Skywalker," she teases him after giving him a moment, touching her fingers to his shoulder to lead him inside.

  
****

  
"I'd offer to cook you dinner," she says, taking off her dusty boots and tossing them to the floor. "But I've been working all day."

"I'm happy to," he says happily, digging through her open pantry.

It's very spare. Knowing Daisy, she probably managed to make friends with all the food vendors in the district.

"So it looks like the intel we fed you paid off."

He stops at that, and closes tin he just opened. "We?"

"Yeah, I'm here to keep a low profile, feed information where it needs to go, but now that you're out, we can get the gang back together."

"You made sure I got the plans to the prison, but, why didn't you tell me it was you?"

"I didn't want to risk exposing us, that way, if it didn't work, we could keep trying through different channels."

"You said 'we'," he repeats, bending to get a pan out from the storage space.

"It's not like you stop being a spy just because you're in space, Phil," she shrugs and stands from the seat in the wall alcove and walks towards him.

"You have a spy network already?" he replies, already forming a dozen more questions in his mind.

"You had one inside the prison, didn't you?" she replies, with a raise of her eyebrow, then takes the pan he's been holding.

"Why don't you let me cook? I can tell you have a lot of questions."

  
****

  
"I would kill for chocolate right now," she groans, handing him her bowl while he washes up.

"Hopefully not literally," he jokes back, as she bumps him with her shoulder.

"I've had to make compromises, you know. Look at the crowd I hang out with now? And my musical tastes, just shocking."

Her look is a bit different. Like she's trying to fit in to this world. Her hair is blunt looking, back to favoring the dark eyeliner that she wore.

"What do you go by here?" he asks her, although he already thinks he knows.

"Quake," she smiles, like she's kind of embarrassed about it. "How about you?"

"I tried 'Coulson, Phil Coulson', a few times, but didn't quite have the effect I was looking for."

"No, 'Phil Coulson, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'?" she says in deep voice, and grins as he raises his eyebrows at her.

"Turns out they're not really into acronyms in space? Like Nova Corps, actually just means Nova Corps."

He shakes his head and finishes washing out a cup while he listens to her laugh.

"You seem okay," she tells him, turning serious suddenly, as he pauses. "Are you?"

"I am now," he answers her, looking her in the eyes. "It feels good to be home."

She gives him a knowing smile at that and then throws him a curious glance before she walks into her room.

  
****

  
"It's just punk music, it's a universal language," he tells her with a shrug as they share her headset.

"This is way more intense than Earth punk, c'mon, Phil," she tells him too loudly.

She scoots away from him in the alcove seating and presses the device to change up the music again.

This time it's something more mellow, haunting, and almost like millions of harps plucked under stars.

He thinks about dreaming, how he didn't dream when he was in prison, but he wanted to.

And that blue light glowing outside of his window all day, every day.

"Nothing's more punk than Earth's punk," he says in mock offense, and hands his half back to her.

"We'll use my coded channel tomorrow to contact the others. They'll be happy to see you."

"It'll be nice to see more friendly faces," he sighs, and scratches at the itchy beard on his chin. A few days growth after the escape.

"You probably can't wait to shave that thing off," she tells him, turning off the music.

"It looks that bad, huh?" His vanity gets the better of him and he takes the device from her hand to try to look at his reflection on its surface.

"No," she answers, then looks away.

"You just seemed uncomfortable. You might want to keep it while you lay low for awhile?"

  
****

  
"Oh, you baked. I don't do that."

He watches her walk sleepily into the main area and look around like she's trying to figure out what has changed.

All his bedding is folded in a neat pile and he hands her some kind of hot tea he found.

"I'd kill for a latte," she says, taking the cup from him and blowing at the steam across the top. "You're the first person I've said that to who knows what it means."

It makes him chuckle, and he thinks about how much she's right. How hard it was to communicate in the colony.

Her hair is still damp from the shower and it's not the persona from the night before, it's just Daisy.

"Pretty simple," he tells her, handing her a warm biscuit. "All the things necessary to make the right chemical combinations to-"

"How long have you been up?" she asks, and sits down on the floor near the small circular window looking towards the district in the harsh daylight.

"I get up at the same time every day for the last-"

He stops to think about it, then decides not to.

"Habit, I guess? I never took you for a morning person." How funny of her to notice that.

"I am now," he says, and sits down beside her as they eat and drink together quietly.

 

****

  
"We make a good team."

He says it to her just before he gets double-fist socked in the face, the universe reminding him to not be so cocky.

Daisy is obviously outraged on his behalf, though, and sends the guilty party flying out the front door of the bar while yelling: "Hands off!"

"Thanks for having my back," he grins, and then regrets it when his jaw complains.

It makes him wonder who's had her back this whole time.

She puts her fingers on his jaw for a moment to check the damage before she blasts someone else with a shockwave.

Yeah, everyone's pretty much out for themselves in this neck of the woods.

Still, he gets a pretty big thrill out of fighting by her side. He always has.

It's hard not to be distracted, though, she's just so damn amazing.

In no time all at, the bar is emptied and everyone has settled into cleaning up and nursing their wounds, Daisy sucking on the pad of her thumb.

"What's wrong?" he asks her, taking her hand in his to look at it.

"I have a sliver in there, probably someone's quills or something. Get some body armor, dude. Gross."

He uses the scanner on his hand to see how deep it is and then pulls it out with his teeth while she's distracted, the way his mom taught him.

"Eww," she says when he spits it out. Then smiles warmly.

Thanks, though."

 

****

  
He's helping her pack everything up since they're getting a ride out tomorrow.

It'll be good to see the team again, hear all of their stories. Get back to Earth.

Still, he's going to miss this place and he thinks about the Retreat, about all the time they've had stolen from them.

The way that even in the course of a couple of days, they've settled into...this.

It makes him think about a different kind of life than the one he'd resigned himself to.

Daisy shows up from work and kicks her boots off and eats all of the soup he made from his trip to the market.

There's something distant about her tonight, though, but he doesn't want to assume too much.

Just when he starts to tell her about some Kree intel he overheard in the market, she turns to him with huge eyes.

"I'm going to miss this place."

He's not sure what she expected in reply, but when he stands and goes to her device, and puts on some of that mellow music, she furrows her eyebrows.

"Night's not over yet," he tells her, offering her his hand.

She smiles, then takes it.

  
****

  
He dreams. It's so vivid.

Dancing with Daisy, and then they go into her room, without saying anything, moving together like they do.

The golden glow of the alien light from the small window above the space.

It's barely enough to fit them both, but he thinks about the music again, like harp strings being plucked.

Starlight coming in from above them while his mouth moves down her body, kissing, her laugh when his beard tickles the inside of her thigh.

When he wakes up, he might even feel a little embarrassed with the way her fingers curl into his hair, tugging, demanding, how much it turns him on.

That she was out here, looking for him all this time.

What an idea.

Then he tries to say something, after, to whisper into her ear while she sleeps, that he loves her.

He always has, but the words won't come out, and he finds himself startling awake, his body all wrong.

Overslept. He can't remember the last time, and he reaches down for his boots, time to get to work.

"Phil?"

It's all wrong.

"Why are you holding my boots? It's not time to go."

He lets them drop to the floor and turns to leans across the bed to her, his hand brushing away her hair to kiss her forehead.

"I love you."


End file.
